AkhenatenByEgyptianLibrary

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Akhenaten

Egyptian Museum
in Cairo

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Akhenaten's Ancestors

The 18th Dynasty C. 1570 - 1320 BC turned Egypt into an imperial
power. The I Iyksos who occupied Egypt for a century and a half were driven
out by Alimose I, the Thcban prince who founded the 18th Dynasty. He fol-
lowed them into Syria and returned in triumph to become pharaoh ol Egypt
with his capital at Thebes. Throughout most of its history Egypt has not
been a particularly warlike nation, but in response to its humiliation under

Asiatic domination, it became militantly aggressive.

1. Colossal Statue of Akhcnatcn

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhcnatcn, 1350 - 1333 BC, Temple of Atcn, Tell
el-Amama,

Sandstone, 11.4 in, Ground floor, room 3, JE 49529

Prior to founding the new capital of Tell cl-Amarna, Amenhotep IV. who
changed his name to Akhenaieii between the tilth and sixth yearot his reign,
erected his principal temple of the Atcn on the cast side of the temple of
Amun-Ra, the Gempaaten which translates as The solar disc has been
found'. This'tcmplc was demolished by rulers of the late 18th and early 19th
Dynasty following condemnation of the 'heretic* pharaoh.

The temple contained a priestly court whose twenty-eight pillars were sup-
ported by colossal figures of the pharaoh. Six of these statues are to be lound
in the Kgyptian Museum, Cairo; two others in Luxor Museum; one in the
Louvre; one in Munich; and the others in the museum depots in Karnak;
some more fragments are stored in the basement ol the Egyptian Museum in
Cairo. The statue represents Amenhotep IV standing, hands crossed over his
chest, holding the royal insignia, the crook and the flail. He wears the kliat
headdress, similar to the nemes but baggier, combined with the double crown.
The pharaoh appears with his characteristic features including the long, ta-
pering half-closed eyes with heavy eyelids, long delicate nose, large protrud-
ing mouth, exaggerated chin, and long ears with pierced lobes, a ceremonial
beard attached to his chin. He is wearing a knee-length pleated kilt with a
central tape, decorated with two uraei.

2. Head of a Princess

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhcnatcn. 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell cl-Amarna,

Quartzitc. H. 21c m. Ground floor, room 3, JE 44869

The workshop of the sculptor Thutmose contained, in addition to many
plaster heads, a number of the cjuart/.ite heads now in the Egyptian Museum
in Cairo and in the Agyptischcs Museum in Berlin. This egg-shaped head
has a broad, elongated cranium, a slim neck and severe Icaiurcs. The head is
rendered in the Amarna style which, influenced by religious concepts, em-
phasized hereditary traits and natural representations. On this beautifully
modeled head, the sculptor outlined the eyes and eyebrows in black, perhaps
intending to carve them out for inlay; additional black lines on the neck des-
ignated areas for the work. The tenon at the base of the neck indicates that
this head was attached to a separately sculptured torso and was part of a com-
posite statue that was assembled after both parts were finished.

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The descendants of Ahmose I pushed conquest further into Palestine
and Syria. Greatest of those was Tuthmosis III, the most competent gen-
eral Egypt had produced. In his 54-year reign he carried out many suc-
cessful campaigns against the Nubians to the south and the Asiatics to the
north. I lis eighth campaign (c. 1457 BC), when he crossed the Euphra-
tes, marked the summit of his imperial activities. Kingdom after kingdom
was conquered and brought under the domination of Egypt. Rich trib-
utes were paid to Thebes. The descendants ofTuthmosis III, Amcnhotcp
II and Tuthmosis IV had no imperial ambitions but they preserved
Egypt's borders. When Amcnhotcp III came to the throne in 1386 BC, he
had no military ambitions ol conquest cither. After the seventh year of his
reign, he never led his armies out of Thebes. He spent the rest of his life
living luxuriously in his capital with his wife, Queen Tiye, of whom he
seems to have been fond. Her name appears beside his in most inscrip-

3. Bust ofAkhcnaten

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhcnaten, 1350- 1333 BC, Temple of Aten, Karnak,

Sandstone, H. 1.85 m. Ground floor, room 3, [E 49528

Amcnhotcp IV, the future Akhcnaten, ruled Egypt for about seventeen years.
His temple, Gcmpaaten, in Karnak, consisted of a large poriicoed courtyard
covering an area roughly 130 by 200 meters, oriented on an east-west axis.
Placed against each of the pillars in the courtyard was a colossal statue of
Amcnhotcp IV, over five meters high and painted in bright colors. This bust,
from one of these colossal statues, represents Amcnhotcp IV, his hands
crossed, holding the royal insignia, the crook and the flail, wearing around
his wrists and on his arms cartouches of the god Ra-Horakhty. The pharaoh
wears the nemes, the classic headcloth, with an uracus attached to his front,
and above it the two plumes of the god Shu (Air). His face is elongated, with a
pendant chin, extended with a false beard, narrow eyes with upper lids pro-
jecting sharplv outward, the nose is straight and very long, the mouth extends
into a V-shape. The pharaoh's ears are also represented in this exaggerated
style and are extremely long with pierced lobes.

4. Akhcnaten making an offering

18th Dynasty, reign ofAkhcnaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell cl-Amama,

Painted Limestone, H. 35 cm. Ground floor, room 3, JE 43580

This small statue would have originally been located on the altar that was
usually found in gardens and where the daily rituals in honor of the Aten
were performed. The pharaoh is represented standing in the act of making an
offering. His hands are holding a slab on which different varieties of food and
lotus flowers are depicted. The pharaoh wears a short plaited kilt with a cen-
tral tape, his belly is deformed, showing his navel, in accordance with the ar-
tistic style of the early part of his reign. A blue crown, carved separately,
which was used mainly in military images surmounts his head. A hole at the
front was made to hold an asp produced in a different material.

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tions, a new development which was to be carried even further in the
reign of his son and successor. Tiyc was the daughter of a nobleman
called Yuya and his wife Tuyu. Yuya was an important officer in the army
and he owned a lot of land in the Delta. Amcnhotcp III kept an exces-
sively large harem including the daughter of the king ofMilanni of Syria
who brought with her 'the chief of the harem, namely 317 persons'. There
was a considerable Asiatic influence at the Egyptian court.

Amcnhotcp III was the first pharaoh to be worshipped as a god in his
own lifetime. The view held by most modern Egyptologists is that the ori-
gin of the cult was political and arose first because of the need to set up a
rival to Amun whose priests became too powerful and second, because of
the need for a universal god who would be recognised not only in Egypt
but in the pharaoh's foreign lands.

Tiyc gave birth to six children, two boys and four girls. The eldest boy
died before assuming any office. Amcnhotcp III also married two of his
daughters, Isisand Sitamun. Great building activity took place during his
reign. The princes of Syria and Palestine which were under Egyptian do-

5. Head ofAkhcnaten

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhcnaten, 1550 - 1333 BC, Tell cl-Amarna,

Limestone, H. 24.5cm, Ground floor, room 3,

This head of Akhcnaten is typical ol the Amarna style. The statue shows him
tranquil but also vigorous, this reflects a strong personality. In fact,
Akhenaten is one of the most controversial and least understood men of the
ancient world. The crown, fyieprcsh, was originally coloured blue. This statue
was found while paving a road at Tell cl-Amarna for the visit of King Fuad I
of Egypt.

6. Sculptor's model with two royal portraits

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhcnaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell cl-Amarna,

Limestone, H. 23 cm, W. 31 cm. Ground floor, room 3, JE 59294

This slab, like many of the trial pieces found at Tell el- Amarna, represents
two royal faces carved in stone. They have been identified as two portraits of
Akhcnaten, or one ol Akhcnaten and one of his successor Smenkhkare. The
two faces are similar. Only the upper part of one side ol the slab has been in-
cised. The face to the right was more likely to be sculpted first. The two faces
are wearing a headcloth with an asp on the forehead, the head of the right ser-
pent is missing, the right face has deeply caned features. The two portraits'
eyes are almond-shaped, very narrow, and enclosed between heavy lids. The
nose is long, the mouth fleshy and down-turned, and the chin prominent, the
ears have pierced lobes and the neck is long and <lim.

The great similarity between the two faces leaves no doubt that they are por-
traits of a single figure, almost certainly Akhenaten.

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minion were educated at the Egyptian court. From these and from the
kings of other neighbouring states, letters flowed into the office of
Amenhotep III. These letters still survive.

Aki-izzi, lord of Kama, another Egyptian province, warns the pha-
raoh of a threat to his states by Aziru the Amorite :

'O my Lord, if the trouble ol this land lies upon the heart of my
Lord, let my Lord send troops, and let them come.'

Trouble had already begun within the Egyptian Empire, but it had

not yet reached serious proportions. Most of these letters arc unashamed

requests for gold. 'Send me much gold, more gold", writes the prince of

Mittani, 'for in the land of my brother (Amenhotep), gold is as common

as dust.' And further, the king of Babylon writes,

'Send me a great deal of gold. If, during this harvest, you send the
gold, then I will give you my daughter. "

The rise of Akhenaten

When the Crown Prince was 21. he married the lovely Nefcrtiti
whose name means 'the beautiful woman has come'. She is the queen
whose features have become famous through the sculpted head which
was found by the German expedition at Amarna. She was the daughter of
the vizier Ay, who was the brother of Queen Tiye and a son of Yuya and
Tuyu. We do not know who Nefertiti's mother was. She must have died
early, and Nefertiti was brought up by another wife of Ay called Tcy. By
marrying Nefertiti, the future Akhenaten did not follow the old custom,

7. Unfinished head of Nefcrtiti

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell el-Amarna,

Brown Quartzite, H. 35.5 cm. Ground lloor, room 3, [E 59286

Nefertiti, whose name means 'the beautiful one is here', was the chief wife of
Akhenaten. They had together six daughters. She supported her husband in
his new religion and participated in its rituals. The date of her death is diffi-
cult to ascertain and it has been suggested that she was buried in the royal
tomb at Tell cl-Amarna late in Akhenaten's reign or shortly after his death.
This beautiful head of the queen is one of a vast number ol pieces discovered
in the workshop of the chief sculptor Thutmosc at Tell cl-Amarna. It was to
be part ot a composite statue made ol several elements, each sculptured sepa-
rately and assembled together after completion. A crown of a different mate-
rial would have been fitted on the upper part of the head.

This unfinished head is particularly elegant, representing the grace of a
woman ol great spirit with its eyebrows elongated towards the temples, the
eyes half shut by slightly downcast eyelids and its mysterious mouth. The art-
ist's guidelines are still visible.

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that of the pharaoh marrying his eldest sister, who was the legal heiress ol
the kingdom after the Egyptian matriarchal system and chose a bride
who was not a direct member of the royal family. Other wives were soon
given to the young pharaoh among whom was a Syrian princess.

It is difficult to understand how Akhenaten's personality developed
during his childhood and adolescence at the Theban court. Here we only
give bare facts.

During the first four years ol the co-regency with his father, the
young pharaoh ruled from Thebes. In the sixth year of his reign, he left
Thebes and established a new capital which he called Akhctatcn, 'Hori-
zon of the Disk'. He introduced a new art style and a new cult of the sun
disk and changed his name from Amenhotep IV, which means 'Amun is
satisfied', to 'Akhenaten', meaning 'It is well with Aten', and later or-
dered that the name Amun be chiseled out on every tomb, temple and
monument on which it appeared throughout all of Egypt, even on his fa-
ther's monuments. This heresy brought him and his successors down and
brought down the 18th Dynasty after its magnificent start.

Those are facts, but what lies behind them and what questions do
they pose? What type of man was this young pharaoh. and what pushed
him to carry out such a sheer change ? Why did he choose such a lonely
site for his new capital ? Akhenaten reigned for 11 years from Akhctatcn,
now the capital of the Egyptian Empire. His palace was more elaborately
decorated, with paintings on the walls, ceilings and (loors, than that of his
parents at Thebes, and beautiful gardens were laid around it. The
rock-cut tombs and mortuary shrines of the nobles were built in the
desert cliffs towards the cast which formed the back of the city. On their
walls arc many drawings of the houses and palaces of the city, and in-
scriptions about life therein.

To Akheiatcn came the envoys from the furthermost limits of the
known world and in the pharaoh's foreign office near his palace were
stored the royal letters from foreign kings. They were similar to those re-
ceived by his father: requests for gold, and sometimes from Akhenaten's
Syrian and Phoenician feudal lords, pressing demands for military aid.
The Hittites. long-time enemies of Egypt, started to expand southward.
Some of pharaoh's subjects surrendered and others resisted falling in the
hands of the I littitcs. Among these were Abdi-Ashirta and his son Aziru
the governor of the threatened city of Tunip. They wrote to Akhenaten,

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My Lord, Tunip, thy servant, speaks saying, who formerly could
have plundered Tunip without being plundered by Menkhcperre
(the great Thuimosis III, Akhcnaten's ancestor). The gods of the
Pharaoh or Egypt, my Lord, dwell in Tunip. May our Lord ask his
old men if it is not so? Now, however, we belong no more to our
Lord, the Pharaoh ol Egypt- Ii his soldiers and chariots come too
late, then the Pharaoh oi Egypt will mourn over those things. And
now our enemy will do as he pleases in the land of our Lord the
Pharaoh... and now Tunip, the city, weeps and her tears are flowing
and there is no help for us. For twenty years we have been sending
to our Lord the Pharaoh of Egypt, but there has not come to us a
word.

Gcbal (Byblos) was loyal to Egypt for centuries, even as far back as
the Old Kingdom. The governor of Gcbal, Rihbadi wrote to the pharaoh
a series of letters which were discovered at Amarnaovera century ago. In
one of these he writes :

It is painful to describe what the dog of Aziru has done. Smyra, a
station of my Lord, a fortress... has fallen, and they spoil our
fortress... the cries of the place. ..a violent man and a dog...

Another tablet says the following :

... march against him and smite him... the land is the pharaoh's
land, and since I have talked and you have not moved, the city ot
Smyra has been lost. There is no money to buy horses all is
finished, we have been spoiled ... give me thirty horses with
chariots, men, men... there is none, not ahorse.

These documents were written in cuneiform script on clay tablets.

We don't know why the pharaoh ignored these petitions. Didn't he have

the vision to sec the empire his ancestor had made was collapsing? Was

8. Stela of the royal family

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 135(1 - 1333 BC, Tell cl-Amarna,

Painted limestone, H. 44 cm, W. 39 cm. Ground floor, room 3, JE 44865

This stela similar to an icon was kept in the private chapel of Amarna bouses.
It was protected by two shutters of wood, whose hinges were fitted into pivots
which arc still visible on the corners of the stela.

The stela represented the royal family seated together as a holy family. On the
upper part of the stela, the sun disc, with its rays ending in human hands,
holds the signs anttfi and was (life and might). Akhenaten and Ncfcrtiti arc
seated on stools with cushions, their feet resting on a long socle. Between
them, their eldest daughter Meritatcn is trying to catch her father's earring.
Meketaten and Ankhsenpaaten are sitting on their mother's lap. Mckctatcn is
standing on the queen's knee and is trying to touch her chin, while
Ankhsenpaaten is holding the earrings strands. The pharaoh is wearing the
blue crown, a collar around his chest and shoulders and a plaited skirt. The
queen wears the high blue crown, a collar around her chest and shoulders,
and a long, transparent robe.

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he following a deliberate policy of non-violence? We may never know the
answer to these questions. He had truly believed that it was possible to re-
tain the loyalty of all of Syria by uniting the people to him in the worship
ofAten. He had hoped to bind together the many countries over which he
bad ruled by giving them a single faith of love and happiness. In fact,
there is no more tragic story in ancient history than the disillusion of the
pharaoh and the fall ofthe Egyptian Empire.

On the north-eastern frontiers, the Egyptian Empire was losing
ground while the Hittitcs were moving down from Turkey. But the pha-
raoh within his pleasant city, pursued his own philosophical and reli-
gious interests and extended a new realism in the arts inspired by the
worship of one god. Akhcnaten had removed the last traces ofthe older
faiths. Beginning with Amun, he had moved on to forbid the worship of
all other gods. Isis, Osiris, Hathor, Ptah and the entire pantheon of lesser
deities were swept away. The demons and monsters which inhabited the
underworld had no place in the tombs of his nobles.

The worship ofAten was not entirely new, but Akhcnatcn's revolu-
tionary act was to believe only in Aten and to ban the worship of all other
deities. Aten was understood as an absolute god, absolute truth, and abso-
lute love. All that was good on earth was a demonstration ofAten : love,

9. Panel with adoration scene ofthe Aten

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhcnaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell el-Amarna,

Painted Limestone, H. 53 cm, W. 48 cm, D. 8 cm, Ground floor, room 3, TR

10. 11.26.4

This panel was found in the rubble blocking the royal tomb of Akhcnaten. Its
function within the funerarv monument is not clear.

The scene represents the royal family, Akhcnaten, Nelertiti, and their daugh-
ters Meritaten and Mekelalen, worshipping the god Aten. On the surlace be-
tween the figures, one can see traces ol a red grid used by the artist to execute
the decoration ofthe tomb. The solar disc is placed in the top right corner,
with rays terminating in small hands, some of which are holding the signs of
was (might) and anifh (life).

The rays ofAten pass behind members of the royal family and in front of the
offering table. The contents ofthe offering table arc almost completely ob-
scured by the rays ofthe solar disc.

The pharaoh is wearing the blue crown, adorned by the uracus; his skirt,
partly plaited, shows his knee. The queen is wearing a wig, a diadem sur-
mounted by two horns, a sun disk, and a tall feather; her long, transparent
robe reveals her body. Their daughter Meritaten is holding her sister with her
right hand and her sistrum in her left hand, the figure of Mckctatcn is dam-
aged.

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music, health, well-being, natural beauty, etc. The symbol of the new
faith was the disk of the sun from which the rays stretched down like-
arms.

The 'I Iymn or Aten', an expression ol Akhenaten's faith, was written
by the pharaoh himself. In the tomb of Ay, Akhenaten's vizier; who be-
came pharaoh after the death of Tutankhamun, we find a long inscrip-
tion of the Hymn of Aten. A piece of pottery was also found to contain
part of the Hymn which is very similar to Psalm 104.

The god sheds his beneficence on all lands alike. He is universal.
This stress on universality provided a unifying political symbol. How-
ever, the new faith was practiced only 'superficially' by the high society.
The ordinary people carried on with the traditional beliefs. On a practical
level, throughout Egypt, the new religion dismantled the Amun priest-
hood and closed the temples.

As Akhenaten was occupied with the things nearest to his heart, the
country was run by two influential men. Ay and I Iarcmhab. Both men
later became pharaohs. Ay was both Akhenaten and Harcmhab's fa-
ther-in-law.

Accompanying the religious revolution came an even more astonish-
ing revolution in the arts. For thousands of years art was bound by reli-
gious conventions, particularly in respect to royalty. There were only a
limited number of positions in which the pharaoh could be represented.
He was a god-king, and particularly in sculpture his might and dignity
were emphasised. The queen, rarely shown with the pharaoh, had an
equally dignified pose. Akhenaten had the courage to abolish all these
deeply rooted traditions. Artists were encouraged to set down honestly
what they saw before them. There was no hiding ol physical deficiencies.
If a man was fat and old, he was not to be represented as slim and young,
no matter how important his position. The pharaoh himself seems to
have suffered from a physical deformity. He was represented with a dis-

10. Facade of a Shrine

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell el-Amarna,

Painted limestone, H. 98 cm. W. 118 cm. Ground floor, room 3, (K 65041

Akhenaten wears his typical blue crown and a kilt. He is represented devot-
ing the oficmigs. Ncfcrtiti wears a transparent blue dress and a crown. Be-
hind her stands her daughter Meritalen.

These type of shrines in a temple-like shape were quite often placed in pri-
vate houses during Akhenaten's reign. Their purpose was to serve as a sort of
altar first for the royal (holy) family, and later to the cult of Aten.

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tended belly, an elongated skull and a long neck. All these peculiarities in
addition to his feminine-shaped body show thai he asked his artists to
make a faithful reproduction of himself. Ncfcrtiti, like many contempo-
rary Egyptians, had developed a cataract in one eye and in her famous
head, now in the Berlin Museum this detect is clearly shown. Akhenaten
liked his artists to represent him as a devoted husband and faiher; he had
allowed Nefertiti to have a position equal to his. It is clear that he wanted
to set the example of a family-oriented man, playing with his little girls,
nursing them on his lap, or kissing them.

In the 12th year of his reign, the Pharaoh received the Queen Mother
Tiye who made a special visit to Akhctaten. The occasion is depicted on
the walls of the tomb ofHuya. Aware of the dangerous situation within
the empire, and also within Egypt, the Queen Mother may have per-
suaded her stubborn son to come to terms with the priests of Thebes.
Shortly after her return to Thebes, she died and was buried in a small
tomb in the Valley of the Kings, a few metres away from the tomb in
which her mother and father had been buried. Shortly after her death,
there seems to have been a sort of mutiny by the priests of Amun at

II. Stela of Any

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell cl-Amarna,
Painted limestone, H. 72 cm, Ground floor, room 3, CG 34177, JE 29748
The charioteer Tj ay driving Any.

Any was overseer, royal scribe of Two Lands and scribe of the ottering
table. In his tomb at Tell el Amarna were six votive stela placed in three
niches beneath the entrance portico. These were dedicated to Any by his
brother and other members of his household, including his charioteer
Tjay. This round-top stela represents Any standing in his chariot; on the
left side is charioteer, Tjay, holding the reins in his hands; the chariot is
equipped with a quiver of arrows. Any wears a heavy wig with an un-
guent vase, around his neck, the so called "gold of valor" necklace, this
type was awarded by the pharaoh to his officials as a mark of distinction.
He wears a tunic with short wide belated sleeves and a loose skirt. The
Amarna style is obvious in the bulging belly and high buttocks, as well as
In the facial features and head of the charioteer, all of which recall
Akhenaton's daughter's head with its elongated skull and tapering
half-closed eyes. The stela includes six columns with hieroglyphic in-
scriptions which mention Any* s name and titulary, and three short lines
for the charioteer Tjay.
17

Thebes. Akhcnaten's reaction was to give orders to completely destroy
Amun's name in every inscription in which it occurred throughout
Egypt. This was so carefully carried out that today the ancient wall paint-
ings arc pockmarked with scars which show where the name was ham-
mered out. Even the tomb of Queen Tiye was reopened so that the word
Amun might be erased out of the name of Amenhotep III. Towards the
end of his reign, Akhenaten gave out orders to hammer out names of the
other deities as well. But this decree was not carried out.

Also in the 12th year of his reign, his daughter Meketaten died while
giving birth. The infant's father was probably Akhenaten himself. He
also married two other of his daughters, Meritaten and Ankhscnpaatcn
and had a daughter by her. Later, Ankhscnpaatcn became
Tutankhamun's wife. It is also certain that in the 15ih year of his reign,
Akhenaten let his half-brother, Smenkhkarc, marry his daughter
Meritaten, and made Smenkhkarc his co-rcgent. The significant fact is
that Smenkhkarc and Meritaten returned to Thebes and ruled from
there. Akhenaten lived a life of insubordination. He looked down upon
the old gods and banned their worship; he deserted the ancestral capital
and built a new city dedicated to his 'sole god'. After such a start, we can't
imagine him making any sort of compromise. It is possible that the fanat-
ical drive in this story came from Ncfcrtiti and not the pharaoh. Archeol-
ogists digging among the foundations of Akhctaten have discovered
evidence that supports this possibility.

Indeed, in about the 14th year of his reign, Akhenaten seems to have
quarrelled with Ncfcrtiti who at the time moved to a palace in the north-
ern part of the city. She took with her Akhcnaten's other half-brother,
Tutankhatcm whose name appears with hers on objects found at that
site. At the same time, in a series of monuments at the southern palace,
her name was erased and replaced by that of her daughter Meritaten. 'The
quarrel could have occurred because of an attempt to compromise with
Thebes. Nefertiti remained a fanatical Atcnist, maybe for religious rea-
sons, but most probably because she knew that her political future de-
pended on preventing the return to power of the Amun priesthood.
Anyway, Smcnkhkare had already gone back to 'Thebes to prepare for the
swing back to Amunism. Akhenaten, left alone in his palace, married his
own daughter Ankhscnpaatcn.

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12. Meryra and his wife Iniuia

IKth Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 1350- 1333 BC, Sakkara

Painted limestone. Ground floor, room 3, JE 99076

Meryra was the scribe of the temple of ihe Aten at Akhetaton (Tell
el-Amarna) and Memphis; his wife Iniuia was the 'favorite of the lady ofthe
palace 1 , that is the queen.

They are seated on a chair with a high back and lion's legs; Iniuia stretches
her right arm behind the back of her husband.

Meryra wears a wig with wavy locks terminating in small curls; a necklace of
honor ofthe type awarded by the pharaoh to his officials as a mark of distinc-
tion, and a hidden chain with a pendant, armlet and bracelet; a tunic with
plaited sleeves; and a skirt with a plaited frontal section attached to the waist.
1 lis hands rest on his thighs, the left hand holding a folded cloth. The name
and the titles of Meryra are inscribed on the frontal section of his skirt.

Iniuia wears an extravagant wig of chevron curls, with a mass of braids
wrapped to the right of her wig. Like Meryra, she holds a folded piece of cloth
in her left hand. She is dressed in a long and tight robe reaching to her feet.
The chair's back is inscribed with ten columns of hieroglyphic inscriptions
mentioning the names and the title ofthe couple. Meryra's position proves
that there was a temple ol Aten at Memphis.

13.Thoth and a Scribe

I Nth Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell el-Amarna

Steatite. H. 14 cm, W. 6.8 cm, I). 11.2 cm. Ground floor, room 3, JF. 59291

Thoth (Djehuty in Ancient Egyptian) was the deity of moon, wisdom and
writing and was very often represented in the form of two animals : the ba-
boon or the sacred ibis. In the Old Kingdom, he was usually portrayed as an
ibis headed man, holding a scribal palette anil pen or notched palm leaf, per-
forming some kind of act of recording or calculation. In the New Kingdom
he appears both in his anthropomorphic, ibis-headed form, recording the re-
sults ofthe weighing ofthe heart ofthe deceased, and as a baboon perched on
I lie top oi the scales.

I Ie was regarded the creator of sciences and arts and inventor of letters, be-
cause according to the beliefs ofthe Ancient Egyptians, a certain category' of
these animals actually knew the use ol letters.

At Tell el-Amarna Thoth was mostly found represented with a scribe sealed
before him. This representation was extremely popular during the reign of
Amcnhotep III and, as demonstrated by this finely carved example, it contin-
ued to be so during the reign of Akhenaten. Though its owner is unknown we
are sure that it belongs to Akhenatcn's period because it was iound in an
Amarna house.

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The Aftermath

In the 17th year of his reign Akhcnatcn died at the age of forty-one
and almost simultaneously Smenkhkare also died, leaving the throne va-
cant. This gave Ncfcrtiti her chance. She pushed Tutankhaten and mar-
ried him to the heiress Ankhscnpaatcn, Akhenaten's widow and
daughter. In this way she legitimised his succession, and Tutankhaten,
still a child, reigned for a short time from Akhetatcn, under Ncfertiti's
guidance. Later, however, the boy-king was persuaded to return to
Thebes, the most likely reason being that Ncfcrtiti was now dead. At
Thebes he changed his name to Tutankhamun (it was his tomb that
Howard Carter discovered), and his wile became Ankhcsnamun. Hence

14. Princess nibbling a roasted duck

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell el-Amarna

Limestone, H. 27cm, W. 16.5 cm, D. 11.2 cm. Ground iloor, room 3, JE48035

This charming little sculptor's model was excavated in 1°24 just outside the
entrance pylons of an open-air temple belonging to the North Palace, a
queen's residence that appears to have been used in the later years of
Akhenaten's reign. The drawing shows a figure whose wide sidelock identifies
her as a princess, seated comfortobly on a soft pillow. Her pose is similar to the
princess's pose in a painting from the pharaoh's house. She holds a whole
roasted duck to her mouth with one hand while stretching the other toward a
table bearing other delicacies. She appears to be nude, but a thin garment is
placed by lines at her neck and over her arm. The piece is unfinished because
only the lower part was carved. It gives us a hint of the artists of the Amarna pe-
riod.

15. Fragment of a painted floor

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell cl-Amarna

Painted plaster, H. 1.01 m, W. 1.6 m, IE 33030/1

Most of ancient Egypt's buildings were built mainly of brick and wood, and
thus ruined very quickly, some rare remains have come down to us to bear wit-
ness to their grandeur, refined construction and painting techniques. Among
the features of the royal palaces at Tell el-Amarna were gorgeously painted
pavements, walls and pillars. In the harim, columned courts were painted with
refreshing false ponds containing fish, ducks, and lotuses amid rippling water.
Several fragments of a painted Iloor from the southern palace at el-Amarna,
the Maru-Aten (which was built for Mcritaten, Akhenaten's eldest daughter)
depict one of those marsh scenes with wild ducks living over tufts of reeds and
papyrus which mix with the floating leaves of flowering plant. These scenes
were a favorite subject for palace decoration.

16. Fragment of a painted floor

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Tell el-Amarna
Painted plaster,

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the wheel had turned full circle, and the priests of Amun returned to
power.

Later they took full revenge. Just as Akhcnatcn had caused the name
of Amun to be erased from every monument, they in turn did the same to
his name. Gangs of workmen were sent to the city of Akhetaten. When-
ever they found the name of Akhenaten and Nefertiti in tombs, temples
and palaces they wiped them out. The temples of Aten were destroyed.
Akhenaten's mummv has never been found ami we assume that his tomb

w

was violated and his body destroyed. But this came a little later. The

17. Akhenaten with a female figure on his lap

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten. 1 S50 - [333 BC, Tell cl-Amarna

Limestone, H. 39.5 cm. Ground floor, room 3, JE 44866

Many unfinished statues, sketches and roughly carved reliefs have been
fount! in Egypt providing thorough documentation on the activities of paint-
ers and sculptors and vital knowledge about the employed techniques and
the way they carried out the production of a work of art.

Akhenaten sitting and on his lap a lemale child. He is wearing an enormous
blue crown and a robe with short tapering sleeves, the child looks naked ex-
cept for a short wig. There is a cubic element below the child's feet. The
scene shows the two figures in the act of kissing, is particularly unusual and
strays from the classic repertory of Egyptian art. This statuette is Irom Tell
cl-Amarna and the female figure could therefore be identified as a secondary
wife, perhaps Kiya who was frequently portrayed with a short wig, rather
than one of his daughters.

18. Canopic Jar

18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, 1350 - 1333 BC, Thebes, Valley of the
Kings (kv 55)

Alabaster, H. 38.5 cm. Ground floor, room 3, )E 39637

Canopic jars were used to maintain the viscera (liver, lungs, stomach and in-
testines) removed during mummification. This jar was one of four found in-
side a niche in tomb kv55. One was sent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, the other remained in Cairo. Although the inscriptions have been
carefully chiseled away so that neither the name of the deceased nor the title
can be found, the jars have been attributed over the years to several members
of Akhenaten's family, from Queen Tiy to the pharaoh himself. Recently,
scholars had attributed the jar to Akhenaten's secondary wife Kiya. At pres-
ent, most Egyptologists favour one of Akhenaten's daughters as the original
owner. The stopper of each jar is formed by portrait of a royal female. The
portrait is elegant, its face framed by a short wig ending with two side braids
cut diagonally in front. The eyes are narrow with heavy lids; the eyebrows
and the eyes are outlined in blue paste, while the white and the pupils are in
quartz and obsidian. Traces of red colour arc visible at the corners. The nose-
is small and narrow, the mouth fleshy and slightly down-turned. On the fore-
head was once an aniens whose body was caned on top of the wig.

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priests still had to wait a little time for their revenge. They considered
Tutankhatcn closely associated with the heresy, and while he lived and
ruled the era ol Akhenatcn would not he openly condemned. Even when
he died, alter a short reign ol nine years, the story was not over. Some
years ago in Turkey, archeologists discovered a cuneiform tablet that has
caused a lot of controversy among Egyptologists. It is an account by one
of the Hittitc kings of certain letters received by his father,
Suppiluliumas, from an Egyptian queen, whose name was Dakhamun.
The letter reads the following :

Then their ruler (i.e. of the Egyptians) namely Fip-khuru-riya just
at the moment died; now the queen of Egypt was Dakhamun... she
sent an ambassador to my father, and said to him, "My husband is
dead, I have no children; your sons are grown up; n you give me
one of your sons, he will be my husband, he will be of help, send
him accordingly.

Suppiluliumas was too cautious in this respect. However, the mar-
riage alliance with Egypt would have been to his advantage. He wasted a
lot of time in thinking. Then the queen wrote again and these arc her
words :

What is this you say, "She has deceived me"... and you think I have
a husband; but he is dead. I have no son; so I have taken a servant
... I have not written to you. however, I have written your sons arc-
said to be grown up; so to me one of your sons give, and he as my
husband in the land oi Egypt shall be a king ...

One of Tutankhamun's name was Nebkheperure, which is not very
different from Pip-khuru-riya and Dakhamun might be Ankhesnamun,
the widow of Tutankhamun. For many years Egyptologists had doubts
over these two names. Now the truth is known, and it is certain that
Pip-khuru-riya was Tutankhamun. The story which the letter reveals
adds a detail to this drama. Ankhesnamun was about 24 years old when
she wrote this letter. She had been married twice, once to her father
Akhenatcn and a second time to Tutankhamun when he was a seven or
eight-year old child. She was the heiress and she knew that the chief
priest Ay wanted to marry her to ascend the throne. In desperation, the
young queen sent a messenger to the king of the Hiilitcs in Turkey, ask-
ing if one of his sons would marry her. She knew that time was not in her
favour. We think that she had onlv 70 davs to act, the time taken for the
mummification ami burial of the pharaoh's body. But the response of the
I liitite king was too slow. Finally when he was convinced of the genuine-

ness of the request, it was too late. Ankhesnamun was married to Ay.
Further, Ay saw to it that the Hittitc- prince never reached Thebes.

Ay reigned for five years and was succeeded by I laremhab, last pha-
raoh ot the 18th Dynasty. He would reign for over twenty-five years dur-
ing which he worked to restore Egypt's economy and international status.
The ISth Dynasty which had a glorious beginning ended up in humilia-
tion.

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